Avenging Glory
by Wotcher Motherduckers
Summary: When Harry Potter wished upon that shooting star, he never imagined that this would be the outcome - experimented on by HYDRA, and tossed into the real world a superhuman. Facing Voldemort just got a whole lot harder with the Avengers on his tail too. Warnings inside. Reboot of my story Avenging Angel.
1. Preface

**So guess who can never stick to a plan: Me! Because I'm terrible and recently reread my old work of Avenging Angel to see where to pick off, I noticed it has so many glaring errors and ridiculous plot issues that a two year old might as well have wrote it. I mean, the Avengers attacking little Harry for no reason? Ridiculous. So I'm going to start improving that while my mind struggles to adapt to the new plot of Fire, Ice, And Blood.**

 **Avenging Glory**

 **Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters**

Preface: Destiny Calling

Dark summer's eves at Hogwarts weren't always pleasant. In fact, they rarely were, young Harry Potter was discovering. His third year at Hogwarts had not ended well at all, his godfather was on the run, his favourite teacher had left, the man who betrayed his parents was still free, and he himself was recovering from the shock of dementors. Still.

He sat by the Black Lake, contemplating life when he saw a star in the evening sky shoot over the lake.

He couldn't resist, if magic was real, who's to say wishing on a dying star was such a crime?

"I wish I didn't have to go back to the Dursleys tomorrow..." He whispered, watching the star's path. He was shocked to see it flicker, seeming to flare brighter for a moment, as if accepting this wish.

That was the last thing Harry saw before his vision faded away into nothingness.

Be careful what you wish for.


	2. Chapter One

**General** **Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters**.

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Abduction, drugging, torture/experimentation on a minor, fantasy violence** **, death.**

 **Updates: My updates will be incredibly sporadic, random, and often all over the place. Sorry. I've got terrible block and am currently trying to focus on the piles of schoolwork I have. Apologies.** **These first chapters have also been shorter than they usually will be. In future, they should be much longer, so greatest apologies for that.** **Favourites, follows, and reviews are appreciated and will probably spur my updates!**

Chapter One: Cut Off One Head

Waking up from being drugged is not a pleasant experience, as Harry was discovering. His head was throbbing terribly and his body felt like it had been ran through a grinder a couple of times. Finding yourself strapped to a table and immobilised is also unpleasant.

Both at once is a truly horrible experience.

Harry strained against the heavy metal bonds holding him back, but found himself quite unable to move beyond tensing and untensing. His eyes darted around, trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

He appeared to be in a very sterile lab, the likes of which Madame Pomfrey and Aunt Petunia would no doubt adore for its cleanliness. He was held on a very uncomfortable stiff table, presumably made of a very strong metal, and had restrains on his arms, legs, abdomen, and neck. The one on his neck felt like a very heavy collar that had been attached to the table rather than an actual restraint on the table as the others did as his neck was a good half an inch off the actual table and trying to move his neck was easier than the rest of his body, as if there were a lesser connection between the table and collar.

It was still impossible, however, for him to actually get free.

A thin needle ran from the inside of his elbow to a bag filling up with blood.

And - good Merlin there was a person!

A person, a supposedly real person in the room with him, thank the heavens. He strained to speak, wanting to demand answers of the person in the white labcoat but his voice wouldn't work.

"The collar, boy, it dampens your mutant powers. Your voice must have an impact on them." Labcoat growled at him, voice distinctly androgynous, slightly muffled by the clinical mask they were wearing. The only thing visible were eyes, a murky grey colour.

Harry's panic raised to _Potentially Exploding Somebody_ level as he tensed again, desperate to be free now, staring at this person in mute horror.

"You're probably wondering why you're here." The person cooed dramatically, taking on the comic villain for dramatic effect.

Harry couldn't nod, but he tried.

"Oh well." Was their response. Anger rose within Harry. He wanted answers. Now.

He wasn't getting them.

He wasn't sure how long it had been since he had seen sunlight. This place was hell like he had never been in before. _They_ kept the collar on him and forced him into thin cotton clothes that didn't combat the cold. _They_ performed surgeries day in and day out, then left him in the cage to writhe against the unimaginable pain. _They_ forced him to scrabble against others in the same position for food and laughed as he lost to larger, stronger, and older beasts.

 _They_ stripped him of everything from the outside world.

He didn't have a name anymore. He didn't have a number. He didn't have anything. Because he wasn't anything.

 _They_ had just finished another surgery. On his heart. The controller _they_ had installed him with prevented him from falling unconscious as _they_ fiddled with his heart. He wondered anxiously if _they_ would give him more of the Blood. He hated the Blood. It burned his veins and scorched his throat even though _they_ still wouldn't let him speak.

 _They_ weren't keeping a close enough eye on the controller. As one stitched him up, his hand shot up to grip the neck of the nearest lab coat, squeezing hard as possible. A crunching sound issued from the throat even as his hand was forced to relax by the controller. The lab coat stopped gurgling and fell back.

Two more of _them_ replaced the lab coat immediately and _they_ strapped his arms down roughly.

He stared up at the ceiling. _Their_ slogan was right. Cut off one head, two more grow back.

He was forced to sleep and woke up in his cage. The mark on his back ached in such a way he had to shift off of it. His forehead smarted where his scar, the only remnant of the outside, was. He rubbed at it furiously, stretching out each limb as far as he could in the cramped space before he came to a realisation.

His collar was gone.

He clawed at his neck in shock, not feeling the cold brush of metal for once, but rather skin that irritated under his long nails. The irritation was only momentary however, as a coolness spread over his throat, soothing it. The coolness continued to spread, his body tingling, delightfully pain free.

It took yet another moment for the connection to be made.

His magic!

Unlike recounts he had heard of magic being too weak to work, his flared like a stallion finally free of its confines and pushed outwards angrily to destroy the cage.

The cage fell open easily and a quiet crow of triumph escaped him, startling him. He hadn't heard his own sound in so long... He padded out of his cage, looking around wildly, eyesight long fixed.

He felt emotions he hadn't felt in what felt like centuries bubble up inside him. Hope. Determination. Elation.

It was short lived as he noticed another figure ahead of him, larger, one of the others. A numbered experiment, he believed. Equally naked and covered in bone like spines.

He padded back, unsure, but the controller buzzed forcefully.

 _Fight. Kill. Destroy._

It was like Parseltongue, the language he had heard so long ago, spoken in the same tone with the same elongated 's' and the same slimy eagerness.

He had no choice to obey, stumbling forwards, gait awkward and unwilling. Opponent, now mentally dubbed so, had a different walk. Confident, almost swaggering, so familiar he could feel the memory hovering, but it never came into sight. Nothing but facts came into sight anymore. No memories, just learnt facts.

Opponent dropped into a four-legged run and lunged. He brought his hands up defensively, panic setting in, and waiting for the blow to land...

Nothing.

He brought his hands down slowly, looking around fearfully. Opponent was lying on the floor, stiff and still. No breath ghosted the tiled floor, no brightness glinted in the eyes.

Opponent was dead.

He was fed well that night.

Time seemed even more fluid after that. Days were marked only by Opponents. The schedule was simple.

Opponent. Surgery or therapy. Opponent. Food.

The schedule seemed to play out over several days, but he had no clue. After First Opponent, he tried not to hurt too much. Hurting Opponent hurt him. Not becuase of _them._ In his chest, it hurt to hurt them.

 _They_ kept the collar off as long as he behaved but he didn't use his voice as much as they liked. _They_ tried to encourage him to, with shocks and pain during therapy. He was getting better. He formed a sentance a few sessions ago. _They_ were happy with his process and gave him food.

His personality, too, was building, they said. He was brave. He was kind. He was sarcastic. _Their_ praise made him happy.

All was going well.

Until It happened.


	3. Chapter Two

**General Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later** **chapters.**

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Abduction, torture/experimentation on a** **minor, fantasy violence/gore, mentions of past child abuse, implications of child sexual abuse**.

 **I in no way endorse or support abuse of any kind and do hope my writing does not imply I do. I merely wish to showcase the effects of such treatment.**

 **Time line clarification: Harry was taken around his third year of Hogwarts. Despite time having passed, Harry hasn't aged which will be explained later. He's still around thirteen. Avengers wise, this takes place sometime before Age of Ultron and some events will take place during Age of Ultron.**

Chapter Two: Freedom! Kind of...

He watched Opponent go down, land on the floor heavily, panting loudly. He fought down a small grin of pride at downing such a powerful Opponent. They had been going back and forth with hits. His arm hung weirdly and his ankle hurt, his face had another cut. He was fine. He would get treatment next therapy.

The controller activated and his usual headache came on. He had no clue what it was, it was like his mutation - magic, Harry, it's magic - was fighting against the controller.

Then the controller stopped buzzing orders at him. Had he overcome it? He couldn't have. His mutation - magic! It's magic, Harry Potter, get it right - wasn't strong enough for that - it is, of course it is, you have to get out Harry - but the voice was back. The voice wasn't there when the controller was active. It was a very familiar voice, feminine, and very bossy. It called him Harry, a name that sounded so right, but would never come to his tongue. It, she, also referred to his mutation as magic. Strange voice.

He had tried to tell the lab coats about the voice during therapy, but the words would never come.

Oh well. It probably wasn't anything to worry about.

He stood, unsure of what to do. He had never have the controller deactivate before getting him back to his cage.

He could hear bangs and what sounded like explosions. He could hear yells and screams and shouts. Each loud noise startled him, but he tried to keep his flinching to a minimum as he carefully picked up Opponent. He was only glad they had clothed him again. It was a black body suit, it was cold and uncomfortable, but it was clothing. He was still uncomfortable with direct touch.

He believed it had something to do with before _them_.

 _Freak._

 _Disgusting._

 _Monster._

 _Slut._

 _Worthless._

 _Pain..._

As he straightened up, he turned away from the cage, expecting to see a lab coat waiting to look at his controller. Instead, he was met by a hammer that hit him straight in the chest and left him soaring back into a wall.

Winded, he fell, gripping the handle of the weapon to stand up, picking it up after.

He looked up to see the shocked face of a yellow haired man in a fancy dress costume, looking like a picture of Thor Odinson he had seen at - Hogwarts, Harry, please remember! - school, at least he believed it was school.

"I think you dropped this." He said with a grin, thinking this was another Opponent. He didn't enjoy Opponents, but the lab coats liked him more after Opponents. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he shouldn't strive for their approval. But after so long... He would take any affection he could get.

The man was staring at him in utter shock before he held his hand out, the hammer flying to his hand and pulling him - Harry, your name is Harry, you're allowed to use it - with it. Harry - there we go - hung limply for a moment, just staring up at the man, his new Opponent, and just smiled.

He dropped off of the hammer as he made it turn into a duck.

The duck quacked, looking at him before up at the man, Opponent, holding it. It quacked again before making an odd hissing sound escaping it as it attacked the man, biting at his hands. The man was seemingly in too much a state of shock to react.

The voice came with more urgency.

Run, Harry, run now! You can do it. Just run! Find your way back to us, please.

Harry, the name was sticking, took off running as told, even as the man shouted something unintelligible at him. He could see other people around him, running, one coming directly at him. A robot in red and gold, colours that looked so - Gryffindor, they're Gryffindor colours, Har, please remember - familiar it hurt.

The robot man stared at him before he sent a pulse of energy at him, hitting the HYDRA symbol on the chest of his suit. Robopponent flew towards him. Harry scrabbled to his feet, desperate not to be seen, the pain in his chest quite terrible now and his arm was hanging limply. He must have cracked or even broken a rib or two...

Robopponent stopped, looking around, before he was again distracted and flew off. Harry - the voice rejoiced at his remembrance and acceptance of his name - kept running. He must have made himself invisible or something. He didn't know he could do that.

He pressed on, looking for a way out. He wanted to find the owner of the voice, as she was always badgering him and helping him. He snuck past a woman in a black suit like his, startling when she seemed to hear him and looked around in confusion. He ducked behind a machine when she began to open fire, clamping a hand over his mouth to silence the pained sounds that wanted to give him away as some of the bullets hit his arm. His other hand gripped his arm to prevent him from bleeding on the floor and giving away his position.

"Nat, there's nothing there!" Somebody called from above. An archer, looking down on the situation.

"I thought I heard something, footsteps." The redheaded woman replied defensively, but moved on. Harry let out a quiet sigh of relief when they were far enough away and began his dash to the sizeable hole in the wall, supposedly their entry point. And his exit.

He jumped through the best he could, landing in the snow. It was a cold shock response, he supposed, but he could feel his defenses go down. He was visible again.

He was shivering as he tried to clamber to his feet, allowing himself to whimper quietly in distress. Contrary to popular belief, it seemed the snow wasn't helping his injuries, rather agrivating them.

"HULK SMASH!"

Harry flinched, looking up as a large green thing made its way towards him at an alarming pace, arms raised to quite literally smash him like a bug. His reflexes kicked in and he raised his hands to protect his head, only looking up as the yell that he had heard began to get fainter and fainter. He looked up.

He had sent the troll flying away from him. Oops.

"Sorry, Mr Troll Man," He mumbled.

Now he had to get through the snow. Barefoot.

This would be fun.

He took off running, the balls of his feet only scarcely touching the ground, convient way to conserve body heat. He was thinking about the voice, hoping to get some direction from it. He was so absorbed in thinking he didn't notice his surroundings until another weapon hit him in the chest.

What was it with him and getting hit in the chest.

The resounding crack was quite worrying as the shield hit him and pushed him back into the snow. He gripped onto it, not realising his luck initially. He now had a shield. He had a defence and an offence.

However, he was really struggling to get up and the shield was pretty heavy, unlike the hammer, which had seemed to weigh nothing at all. So, in no time at all, the owner of the shield had caught up and retrieved his shield, even has Harry tried to cling to it.

The man, in a weird blue, red, and white costume, stared down at Harry for a moment in sympathy before squeezing his eyes shut and raising his shield. Harry cringed, waiting for the blow to hit.

But it never came.

"Go on, kid. Run." The man urged. "Run!"

The 'before I change my mind' was silent, but Harry assumed it was there. He didn't hesitate to do as he was told, getting to his feet as quickly as possible and taking off running though his chest and ribs burnt.

"Tony, he's just a kid!" He could hear the man yelling behind him and turned to see what new danger had arrived, silently wishing he was anywhere else.

"And this is a HYDRA base, Cap. He's dangerous! Think of all the mutants we've found at HYDRA bases..."

With a crack, his wish was granted and he apparated away from the brewing argument between two leaders.

Tony stared at the spot the kid had been. According to Thor, he had been fighting another and had just returned them to a cage when he saw him. Thor believed them personel and attacked.

Mjölnir was now a duck, something that had shocked everybody greatly, and the child had picked up the hammer as if it weighed nothing.

The same boy had then appeared in front of him, looking like any other HYDRA agent with the symbol on his chest. So Tony had done the natural thing and shot without looking at the kid's face, not realising he was a kid initially. He had then somehow disappeared, gone invisible whatever.

Clint and Natasha guessed they had seen him next, well, heard him and Natasha had shot at him. She hadn't thought she'd hit but by the blood in the snow where he had exited and where Steve had let him go, she obviously had.

The Hulk had then seen him, if the yell was anything to go by. And now Banner was gone, so that was something they had to do as well as searching for the kid thanks to Steve.

"Tony, he was just a boy, what did you expect me to do?" Steve reasoned as they sat in the Quinjet, working on locating the Hulk.

"Capture him! Question him! Figure out why he was here!" Tony listed off angrily.

"He couldn't have been older than twelve, I couldn't do that! To a child!" Steve yelled.

This screaming match continued for several minutes while the rest of the team sat in apparent shock and confusion. Thor was holding his now fatherless hammer and watched as Clint and Natasha worked on locating Banner while their leaders were busy arguing over the morality or capturing a child.

Harry landed awkwardly, hitting his burning shoulder and jostling his broken rib(s) as he hit the hard pavement, a stark difference from the soft powdery snow from outside the facility.

Though his head was clouded with pain, it also felt clearer than ever. Memories rushed through him of before, before _them_ , before... HYDRA.

He lay back in the back alley he was in, letting the memories consume him. And he realised.

The voice. It was gone.

But now he knew who it was. His mum. Lily.

Tears streamed down his face at the realisation. His mum, his mum had been talking to him while he was in that hellhole, comforting him and advising him, who got him out of there.

Harry curled in on himself, wishing he had any other clothes than this black bodysuit and its HYDRA markings, not even noticing as it changed to his wishes, as best as it could, returning him to clothes from the Dursleys, the closest his magic could get to familiar clothing without being Hogwarts robes.

He stayed there, curled up in the back alley in too large clothes, even more than they had been his last time at the Dursleys, and eventually fell asleep, the blood wards that used to protect him at the Dursleys settling anew around that little corner he was calling home.

 **A/N: Alright guys, I just wanted to say a few things. First of all, thank you all so so _so_ much for all the follows and favourites and reviews! I will only be replying to a few of them, the longer ones. So that will be happening in this section. A special thanks to the new readers of my stories and the reviewers, hope you enjoy!**

 **Reviews:**

 **EmeraldMoonChaser: Thanks so much and I will keep updating (hopefully) and honestly, I hope I'll finish this too.**


	4. Chapter Three

**General Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters.**

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Abduction, Fantasy violence, child abuse, reference to torture/experimentation, implied child sexual abuse.**

 **A/N: I have to apologise because this chapter is going to divert from the original plot. Why? Because reading over the chapter I'm wondering what the actual f # I was _on_ while writing that whole load of bull about the Avengers using lethal force on Harry in that situation. With him being younger it makes less sense! So apologies to those who like the original series, but I hope this makes more sense.** **As for my explanation of magic in this chapter: utter bull that probably makes no sense whatsoever that I'm just making up as I write it because... Reasons?**

Chapter Three: What The Hell Is A Hulk?

The Hulk wasn't exactly fond of the Metal Man and his puny friends. But he was confused by the little wizard that had almost hurt him. For once, the Hulk was feeling an emotion other than anger.

Curiosity.

The wizard had been damaged, badly, and had attacked out of fear and had _actually thrown him_. That didn't happen to the Hulk. Hulk was too strong for that.

But the Hulk understood something nobody, even puny Banner, didn't fully understand. And that was how magic worked.

It was, in essence, a mutation, not one caused however by the X gene or basic radiation. Their bodies had adapted to be able to store and use raw energy around them, specifically quantum energy, and redirect it to do something entirely implausible, anything their mind could conjure up. This was believed to be a reaction of gamma radiation flares, thus how it appeared in different cultures and developed seperate cultures of sorts.

It wasn't until very recent years, say the last thousand or so years, that wands had been in use, made to aid in the focus of spellcasting. Then, incantations became popular and eventually just took over, the words holding no real other than the belief of them.

But, with the gamma radiation connection, the Hulk, oddly, was able to track the unique scent of a wizard's magic.

Harry, for example, was exceptionally powerful and his power had only been boosted as of recent. His magic smelled of raw untapped power and leaked like a waterbottle with the cap only half on, it had a pure and sweet smell, wild and untamed.

It was that scent, the sweet and wild smell of magic, that had the Hulk running to find the boy before the Avengers found him leaping into the air with vigor. His destination?

New York City.

The streets were too crowded for Hulk to remain as Hulk. It seemed he was actually self-aware. He was big, scary. He smashed. Little wizard would be too scared. Puny humans of city would be scared too.

Fortunately, when he crashed into the street, he shifted back into Banner as he went unconscious. The Hulk could only hope puny Banner would find the little wizard.

* * *

Harry remained curled up in a backstreet for far longer than he should have. It was cold and he was shivering, but he almost couldn't bring himself to care. He wanted to go home... Wherever that was, and he had no clue how to.

His injuries burned whenever he moved. He knew he had to find a hospital soon, but he didn't even know if this was an English speaking country and of course his realities never bothered to teach him other languages.

But he needed to move. He needed water, food, essentials like that. Maybe he could find the nearest division of the wizarding world, but he had no clue where to look, let alone what.

It wasn't until he heard shouting coming down his alley that he got the courage to pull himself up and face whatever was coming, not noticing his rather convient change of clothes.

"Hold him down!" The largest of these new arrivals yelled as Harry came forwards, not yet seen.

Two boys, perhaps a little bit older than Harry and an odd callback to a trio of boys he was sure he knew, obeyed quickly, grabbing the smallest of the four, a young boy more roughly Harry's age, and pinning him to the wall.

"Poor, puny Parker," The largest boy smirked, drawing his hand back to hit the boy. He swung and -

Harry rugby tackled him.

It was something he had learned from watching Dudley and more often from being on the receiving end of it. Pushing the bully to the ground however felt very good, even when he was pushed off and landed painfully on his back.

He got to his feet quickly enough, practiced from the years of torment at the Dursleys and no longer burdened by glasses and horrible eyesight.

He could hear the pinned boy laughing behind him and turned to the two holding him.

"Let him go." Harry ordered in his best impersonation of Hermione's no-nonsense tone.

"And why should we do that?" The boy he had tackled had gotten back to his feet and grabbed Harry's arm. He spun him around roughly.

Harry raised an eyebrow, adopting his usual Gryffindor bravado as he took a little more inspiration from his bookish best friend and punched the bully straight in the nose.

He was immediately released and stood strong, rubbing his hand slightly. That was idiotic - his thumb felt broken. He really did need to learn how to throw a good punch. The boy he had punched stumbled back in pain, gripping his bleeding nose.

"Oh, that looks painful. You might want to get to the hospital," Harry cooed with an expression of fake sympathy.

"You'll pay for that! I'll make you pay!" The boy snapped, motioning for his buddies to release the pinned kid before half running off.

Harry was really getting flashbacks of Hermione punching Draco. He looked to the kid that was now scrambling to find his glasses, quickly taking pity and picking them up, offering them to him.

"Are you alright?" He asked, helping the boy up.

"Are you kidding? That was awesome!" He said excitedly, jumping up and down a little in excitement. "I'm Peter by the way. I've never seen anybody stick up to Flash like that!"

"I'm Harry," He laughed a little at the kid's excitement. "Wait, did you say his name is... Flash? Like, his actual name is Flash?" Harry stifled a laugh. "He sure ran like a flash after I hit him." He chuckled, rubbing his hand again subconsciously, not really noticing the pain at all.

Peter laughed. "I like you." He declared. "His real name is Eugene, Flash is his nickname because he's on the football team."

"Eugene? No wonder he wanted to go by Flash." Harry snorted.

His mind then made the connection of Peter Parker being his new friend's full name. Apparently his parents had liked alliteration. They had some pretty weird names around here.

Peter had noticed Harry's rubbing of his hand and was looking closely at his hand.

"Are _you_ okay? Your thumb looks weird." He commented.

"I'll be fine." Harry dismissed a little too quickly.

"You look kind of pale too. That's not good." He frowned. "Come on, my aunt's quite good with this sort of thing. She'll fix you up."

"That's really unnecessary..."

"Nonsense! You saved me from Flash and his goons. It's the least I can do." Peter insisted, grabbing onto Harry's arm and pulling him along insistantly.

"What were you doing down that alley anyway?" Peter asked.

"It's kind of a long story..."

"It's a long walk."

Harry almost rolled his eyes at the cliche statement but huffed as his new friend peered at him, guessing he wouldn't be left alone until he answered.

"Well," he began.

* * *

"You fought off the Avengers?" Peter asked incredulously.

"Not exactly..." Harry said awkwardly. "I more... Ran away from them."

"You were in a HYDRA base! Somebody abducted you and took you to a HYDRA base! That's so awesome!" A pause as Harry gave Peter _the_ look. "Oh, I mean not awesome. Totally not awesome. Really uncool of that dude."

Harry laughed.

As they continued walking, Peter revealed to him who exactly the Avengers were as well as introducing him to his own alter ego, the Spider-Man... After a long winded and very exasperated explanation of what _YouTube_ was.

"Wait, so do I need a fake name too? Like Flash or the Spider-Man from _YouTube_?" Was Harry's first question.

"Flash- Flash is nowhere near as cool as the Spider-Man! Just the Spider-Man, by the way, the _YouTube_ bit is unnecessary." Came the irritated reply.

They continued to bicker until they reached Peter's appartement. He was living with his aunt, and Harry could already feel the sweat collecting at the back of his neck.

What if she was like Aunt Petunia? What if she hated him and got angry at Peter and kicked him out? What if she hurt him? Or sold him back to HYDRA? Or called him names? Or - or -

Peter opened the door...

* * *

 **A/N: This is so short, ugh. I've really bad block at the moment, so sorry about the slow and short update. Hopefully I'll get some ideas soon and get this up and running smoothly.**

 **Review responses:**

 **candinaru25: Bless, Harry is still confused and will probably be for a while, but now he has a friend he didn't have in the original.**

 **Victoria (Guest): Thanks so much! Updates are on the way, its all on my to do list.**

 **ClaireR89: Mate (if you don't mind me calling you that) please tell me when you figure it out, I want to make these the best they can possibly be.**

 **All reviewers that haven't been addressed here: Thank you so much for reviewing! It really means the world to me and has kept me writing when I'm able to.**


	5. Chapter Four

**General Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters.**

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Fantasy violence, child abuse, reference to torture/experimentation** **, explicit language**

 **A/N: I know, I know. Author's notes at the beginning _and_ end? I'm getting tired too. But here's the thing, I recently got quite a rude review, a guest review no less, with no name, nothing, just ranting about my portrayal of the Avengers and calling me, I quote a 'f* baby killing coward' (taken straight from the email notification). Now people, if you have a problem with my writing and the way I present certain characters, don't be a baby and start f-ing and blinding at me, you're all better than that. Write it out with some decency. I'm not adverse to constructive criticism, just plain rudeness. Thank you, that's all.**

Chapter Four: A Very Bad Decision

"Jarvis, bring up all footage of the fight at the HYDRA base," Tony ordered the computer system, sitting at the large screen in his lab at Avengers tower.

They had recovered Banner, he had been found by some kid by the name of Eugene who had been shocked to find a half-naked scientist in his backyard. And, much to Tony's irritation, he was hovering behind the man, watching the screen with some intent. Apparently, the Unfriendly Green Giant actually didn't want to smash the HYDRA soldier. By now, Cap was the only one still disagreeing with this assessment and insisting that this was a _child, Tony, he's only a child._

A child with superpowers that'd been brainwashed by HYDRA. As much as Tony hated it, they had an obligation to protect the city from such threats, child or not.

Steve was just hung up on his old-fashioned morals. Morals, he calls them, coming from a time where segregation was the norm, from a guy who was shocked to find Rodey was black and even more shocked that there had been a black president. Ridiculous.

So Tony was muttering under his breath as he watched the footage anyway, zooming and un-zooming, trying to put a name to the nameless, a face to the faceless. The soldier only faced the camera once, as if he knew they were there and deliberately avoided them. And then he disappeared with some invisibility power! Tony had already logged the face of the unknown soldier onto the computer system, setting an alarm for if the boy was ever seen and sending a version to his facial recognition scanner that he totally hadn't stolen from SHIELD. Even so, tracking the child - no, Tony, he's a soldier, he reminded himself irritably - was going to be nearly impossible.

Nearly.

"May? I'm home!" Peter called, waiting for a beat for a reply. When none came he frowned. "May? I brought a friend, he kind of needs your help." He added, walking into the apartment and looking for his aunt.

"Guess she's still at work. Come on in." He urged Harry, tugging on his arm to bring him into the flat after he noticed Harry's hesitation.

"We could go to the hospital but with the whole HYDRA escapee thing, that's probably not the best idea." Peter reasoned, sounding excited by the prospect of his new friend had to live in secret. "Maybe we could take you to Avengers Towers! Talk to them, I mean, they are heroes, they should listen to you!" He continued.

"Yeah, they seemed real heroic, trying to kill a thirteen-year-old," Harry muttered.

"Well, um, you _were_ in a HYDRA base."

"And? I'm a child! A thirteen-year-old child! They shouldn't be trying to kill a thirteen-year-old child!" He snapped, "They shouldn't even try to hurt a child! Isn't that the whole point of them being heroes?" He began to rant, his anger about Dumbledore and the Wizarding World with Voldemort and Sirius and Remus and everybody spilling into his anger towards the Avengers. It was all ridiculous!

"Well, um," Peter struggled for words, trying to think of an argument to defend the Avengers. But nothing did come to mind. In all honesty, he objectively agreed with Harry. "Can we please just try to go to Avengers Tower? You said Captain America let you run! Maybe he'll help you."

Harry sighed, "Not happening."

"Don't you want to be Super-boy, the newest Avenger?"

"Pretty sure there's a copyrighting issue there."

"Don't you want to find your friends? And family?"

This question broke Harry and he looked at Peter, taking stock of the pleading puppy eyes. "Fine," he muttered reluctantly.

"Great! I'll leave a note for May and we can go!" Peter said, running off to find paper and a pen.

Once he had written his note and left it on the fridge for his aunt to find, they left again, Peter practically bouncing, happy to see Mr Stark again and hopefully meet the Avengers.

If Hermione were here, she would be chewing off his head for being reckless. The readers were probably cussing him out too, but after the whole thing with Sirius and last year with the Chamber of Secrets and the year before that with Quirrel and basically his entire life story of reckless endangerment, how were they really surprised? It was a rare moment of weakness for Harry, where he was so tired he just needed the _adults_ to sort out this bullshit for once.

So he headed into the Devil's Den with Peter still blabbering excitably about the Avengers as if the people who had just tried to kill him and yet claimed to be heroes were so cool. Capop, as Harry had mentally dubbed the supersoldier who Peter said had been frozen in ice for seventy years, seemed to be the only one with any morals, and those were shaky at best as he left a _thirteen-year-old child_ in the snow to freeze rather than attempting to calm him down and get him to safety... God, the adults in his life sucked.

Harry was liking this plan less and less as they walked into the building. It honestly came as no surprise to him when an alarm went off the moment he entered and that security guards swamped him. He gave Peter a fed up look, knowing he couldn't easily get out of this one, too tired and too pained to even try just then. Well, this confrontation promised to be easier than a basilisk, even if he didn't have Fawkes this time. The fire chicken was honestly the only good thing about Dumbledore.

He was grabbed at as the guards wrestled with each other more than the surprisingly co-operative Harry, who just waited, going limp, too tired for this shit.

A lot of people were staring at the guards kept Harry restrained, including Peter who looked close to just bolting out of fear, something Harry couldn't really blame him for, having known the kid for not even three hours.

"Tony, the boy has been apprehended." A more portly man said, coming over to the group, disappointment clear in his voice. Harry blinked rather bored at the man before realising who his tone was directed at. Not him, but Tony - Stark, he assumed. An adult with some sense? Harry could only beg the gods that this wasn't just him misreading the man.

Harry gave the dark haired man ahead of him, swaggering over with a too-cool look that reminded him almost painfully of Sirius, a bored glare.

"Death or imprisonment?" He asked with a raised brow, taking a lesson from the cool, collected, most bored look of Tom Riddle in the diary, remembering how much more intimidating he was.

It was clear by the look of pure shock on the man's face that he wasn't used to such a blunt tone. "Pardon?" He blinked.

"Death or imprisonment? You gonna kill me or lock me up?" He asked tiredly. "Because I don't remember the last time I ate and I don't wanna die on anybody trying to kill me. Bad manners, you know." He said with only half a tone of sarcasm. He imagined if he died before Voldemort killed him that the poor Dark Lord would not be very impressed.

The man looked honestly confused but made a gesture to his guards who reluctantly let him go.

Harry looked equally confused, falling to the ground without the physical support of the guards holding him up.

"So death?"

 **A/N: This chapter is so short and so late, I'm sorry! But I'm here and I'm writing again and I've still got massive writer's block, ugh, I couldn't apologise more. Anyway, thank you all for continuing to read and review**


	6. Chapter Five

**General Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters.**

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Fantasy violence, reference to torture/experimentation, references to child abuse** **, fluffy slash (Wolfstar)**

Chapter Five: The Winter Soldier(s)

Everything was dark and blurry, and Harry wasn't safe. Harry isn't safe. Harry isn't...

Sirius woke up. He was drenched in cold sweat, he could feel it running down his back and he could feel bile working it's way up his throat.

"Moony, Moony!" He hissed urgently, trying not to be too loud and wake the other passengers on the train.

They were heading to Wales, to the Wizarding Communities in Dinas Emrys on the southern shores of Lynn Dinas in Snowdonia, and were taking the Arriva Wales train there. They were originally going to stow away but after obtaining an 'Oyster Card', a haircut, and a new diet, he was able to travel without being recognised by muggles, though Moony did insist he wears a Notice Me Not spell when possible.

The werewolf only grumbled in response.

"Moony, you old fart, wake up!" Sirius growled, poking his friend (with benefits, of course) in the arm.

"Sirius, I swear to God, if you've seen another squirrel, I will kill you." The werewolf muttered grumpily as he opened his eyes to glare.

Sirius looked personally offended, despite this happening at least three times on their journey so far.

"This is serious, Harry's in danger." He said, clearly panicking.

"Harry is dead," Remus growled, eyes going amber as his wolf rebelled inside him, howling in rage. Their cub was not dead. Their cub was alive and they needed to be looking for him, not moping around. "You saw the body. He's been dead for a year"

"Well, he must not be dead because he's _in danger._ " Sirius insisted.

"He is dead," Remus said, voice raising to normal volume, the conversation so far has been hushed to avoid passengers listening in. It was too close to the full moon, Remus was exhausted from holding his wolf back.

"He's not dead!" Sirius said stubbornly. "And we're changing destinations. We're going to America."

This new topic had Remus blinking, confused.

"America, why?"

"Because Harry is there! And so is my cousin, Saggita." Sirius added smugly. "She recently came into an inheritance. She wants to meet you."

Remus finally gave in, glaring at the grim animagus. "If you weren't so cute..." He muttered, trailing off with unintelligible threats. Sirius grinned, watching his mate doze off once more.

~ AG ~

"I'm not a soldier." Harry insisted for the umpteenth time, frowning at the billionaire in front of him.

"You were fighting for HYDRA," Tony argued.

"I was fighting to escape."

"Escape from us, because you're apart of HYDRA."

"Escape from you and HYDRA because I didn't want to die."

Bruce held back a laugh at the kid.

"I like this kid. Can we keep him?" Clint laughed, seeing Tony's pained expression. The archer took great amusement from annoying Stark, and the kid was able to do that without even trying.

"Clint, he's not a lost dog." Bruce reprimanded, despite his own curiosity. JARVIS had noted a disturbance around the boy that the AI couldn't trace. The Hulk also still felt drawn to him and was prowling close to the surface, wanting to come out and protect the boy, get him away from Tony and to somewhere safe, something Bruce had never experienced from his alter ego before.

"He's a HYDRA soldier." Tony insisted.

"You're right stupid for somebody who claims to be a genius," Harry muttered.

Tony groaned. Bruce sighed. Clint laughed.

It was going to be a long day.

"Kid, I can't just let you go, you were in a HYDRA facility, you could be all kinds of brainwashed." Tony insisted, hours later, after Harry demanded to be freed.

"Except I'm not." Harry retorted stubbornly.

"But you could be."

"But I'm not."

This argument continued for a while before Steve had the sense to come to check on the two.

"Tony, stop harassing Harry." The supersoldier ordered, walking over to them with a sigh. "Let me talk to him."

Harry looked at the man, looking slightly confused. None of the Avengers thus far had bothered to use his name. He watched as, after a moment, Tony reluctantly got up and went to sit a small way away from them, watching closely.

"Harry, I know you're probably scared, I would be in the same position, but we're just trying to help you. HYDRA is dangerous, they have killed millions and brainwashed people into doing their bidding." He began, holding a hand up to silence Harry's protests that _he wasn't_ _brainwashed._ "They have brainwashed people since the Second World War to fight for them, they've tortured and experimented on numerous people and turned them into living weapons. People much older and stronger, who should have been able to resist,"

"They could have done anything to me," Harry finished with a sigh. It made sense, he had to admit.

"Don't worry, none of us is going to hurt you. We just need to make sure you're not a threat." Steve said with the friendliest smile he could manage.

~ AG ~

Harry couldn't believe the bullshit these superheroes asked of him. A week of testing and experiments that made him feel like he was right back with HYDRA in a SHIELD facility was the fastest way to lose somebody's trust, but they were striving to find more ways.

"You want me to what now?" He stared at the Widow in shock. "No! No. No way."

"Harry-"

"You want me to fight for you guys? After you locked me in a _pressurised glass box_ for several days, you want me, a thirteen-year-old _child_ , to fight a HYDRA supersoldier?" He demanded, the mug on the counter beside him shattering.

Natasha didn't even look surprised at the mug or his anger, in fact, she seemed to share his fury. At Fury.

"Fourteen-year-old," She corrected, "And yes. We do. Fury does." She sighed, frowning at the teen. "Look, I've struck a deal with Fury. If you come to help us with this, we can take you back to the tower. No more glass box, no more helicarrier. You'll be free to move around the tower and maybe even New York if one of us goes with you-"

"Because you think I'm a dangerous mutant!" Harry interrupted, voice raised to a shout.

"Becuase you're a fourteen-year-old boy who doesn't know the city with the HYDRA symbol branded on your chest!" Natasha responded in like, glaring at the teen before she forced herself to calm down. "Harry, I like it about as much as you do, but we can't just let you go. You have nobody here. Your aunt and uncle were arrested for child abuse - by HYDRA. Your godfather doesn't seem to even exist, the only file he has is a criminal one declaring him a murder. Just help us with this, you might be able to get through to the Winter Soldier."

"Because...?"

"He's a HYDRA soldier, tortured and experimented on, like you. If anybody can sympathise, if anybody knows what he's going through, it's you." Natasha said, ignoring the fact that she ought to do just as well, considering her past.

It wasn't a hard choice, really, when he weighed up his options. He could actually help and would gain his freedom either way, whether it be in Avengers Tower or in death. So, grudgingly, he looked up at Natasha and said,

"I'm in."

It was a mistake. Harry knew it was a mistake as he ran after the clearly psychotic Winter Soldier cursing every god he could name from his Wizarding and Muggle education, Thor and Loki included, unfortunately. He knew it was a mistake when he saw the man casually throw off Black Widow while she was trying to garrot him.

He saw the man raise his gun and surged forwards, jumping onto the man's back and hitting at his head with all the force he could muster.

Which wasn't a lot to the Winter Soldier, who threw him off like he weighed nothing, shooting and hitting Natasha in the arm. Harry struggled to his feet as the man advanced on Natasha, ignoring him completely.

"Are you fucking insane?" Harry shouted, hoping not only to grab the man's attention but piss him off... It was also a legitimate question.

The soldier turned around, as Harry had expected, glaring. Could he speak with the mask on? Oh, who cares?

Harry shot him in the chest with a blast of energy and motioned for Natasha to run, before shooting another blast of energy. The soldier's attention was briefly diverted by Natasha, but he advanced on Harry and grabbed his neck with the metal arm and lifted him into the air painfully.

The tightness, the weight, the suffocation, was familiar, and for a moment he felt himself slip into the old persona of the boy beaten down by HYDRA, looking for their approval, and Harry didn't even try to fight.

Steve's shield hit the solider, shocking Harry out of his thoughts and the solider into dropping him to the ground, where he just lay, regaining his breath. They were fighting, he could see, and the Soldier had Steve's shield and was using it easily to deflect and fight Steve. Harry struggled to his feet, clinging to the door of a half-destroyed car, weakened from the suffocation, but waved his hand, sending the shield flying out of the soldier's grip, lodging it into the back of a van.

The soldier brought out a knife with barely a moment of hesitation and the fight continued. The soldier stabbed, Steve blocked, the soldier sliced, Steve blocked, the soldier continued his fancy knife work and punches, Steve continued to block and punch, finally getting two hits in, a punch and an impressive spin kick, sending the solider into the side of another van, which dented on impact. The soldier managed to get up and the fight continued, Harry stumbling to try and keep up and help.

But he was still a fourteen-year-old in a fight the adults should be handling.

And then the mask came off.

Steve was staring in pure shock, and the soldier paused for a convenient and dramatic five seconds as Steve processed.

"Bucky?" He asked in a shocked realisation, all fighting spirit leaving him. Harry watched from behind a car, waiting for his moment.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" The soldier, clearly Bucky, responded with a look of genuine confusion on his face. He quickly got over it and pointed the gun at Steve.

Harry jumped out to intervene, but Falcon got there first. Harry made his way behind Bucky, guessing he might try to run.

He pointed his gun again at Steve, this time stopped by an explosion orchestrated by Widow.

Bucky turned to run, not even trying to protect himself from the explosion, and was only met with Harry, the fiery explosion leaving them alone to face one another.

Bucky aimed his gun at Harry, the natural response.

"I don't want to fight. Just shoot." Harry said, knowing he wouldn't escape this battle to go anywhere other than the SHIELD cage or maybe another HYDRA cage. SHIELD, HYDRA, what was even the difference?

The words seemed to catch the solider off guard and he hesitated, redrawing his arm before he just aimed again. Finally, he shot.

Harry waited for the bullet to tear through him, feeling it graze his chest, and just groaned as an invisible shield came up around him just in time, on his very skin, destroying his top as well as the bullet, before one formed around him and the soldier, trapping them both.

Bucky didn't advance, just staring at Harry, more specifically, the angry red brand on the tan skin.

"They...?" The beginning of the question was stopped as the soldier stumbled back to sit against the wall of the shield dome, which was still surrounded by heavy smoke.

"You're a child." He finally said.

"Somehow, you're the first person to realise that," Harry grumbled. The emotionless soldier hell bent on destruction noticed he was a child and the supposed do-gooder Avengers and SHIELD don't? Why was he even surprised?

"You, you were fighting me." Bucky realised.

"How'd you figure that one out, Sherlock?"

"I tried to shoot you," This came out a horrified realisation that almost made Harry sigh in contempt for all adults.

"Yes, you did." He agreed, his anger and frustration evaporating at how confused the man looked. "But it's not your fault. You were being controlled. By HYDRA."

Even as the smoke cleared and Steve, Sam Wilson, and Natasha tried to break through the shield in a panic, Harry and Bucky sat, a tentative bond forming as they shared memories and experiences from their time with HYDRA, and the times before that, as both remembered who they were.

 **~ AG ~**

 **It's so short! Still! It's longer than the last two but still so short!**

 **Okay so here the timeline is a bit messed up but kind of clears up and we get some exposition. Harry is fourteen, he had a birthday while he was with HYDRA, and a year has passed, which means Hogwarts fourth year has been and gone. The Hogwarts/Harry Potter timings have been moved up into the Marvel universe so they take place, meaning they began in 2010 and this is 2014. But, I'm going to further mess with the timeline by moving up a lot of the Avengers business to co-exist with Harry's school years. So yeah.**

 **Also, as some reviewers have been asking and I myself am still asking, what pairing am I doing? Well, what pairings would you guys like to see? Slash or non-slash, I don't mind, but leave some opinions in the reviews to help a gal out. Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter Six

**General Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters.**

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Fantasy violence, references to torture/experimentation, references to child abuse, implied past child sexual abuse, graphic description of fantasy gore/character death (in vision), slash**

Chapter Six: Why Is It Always HYDRA?

Harry practically glued himself to Bucky's side as they approached Avenger's Tower a day later. Bucky didn't seem to mind, au contraire, he looked just as terrified as the little wizard and equally glad to have somebody by his side. The Tower was as intimidating the second time as it was the first, too tall for Harry to even see the top from outside, and with more expensive technology than Harry had seen outside the Tower in his whole life.

"Don't worry, you won't have a security problem this time," Steve joked lightly, not quite noticing how uncomfortable Harry seemed.

"Well, you haven't gotten any better at talking to people, except now it's not just dames," Bucky snorted, only getting a relieved smile from Steve, who couldn't be happier his friend recognised him and remembered their old joke.

They managed to get inside and into the elevator without dying or getting stopped by security, always a plus, and Steve pressed the button for the Avengers personal communal floor. Harry shifted uncomfortably, having been trapped at the front of the elevator by pure misfortune and being too awkward to ask any of the occupants to move so he could.

"Mr Rodgers and Miss Romanoff, I have been told to inform you that Sir is hosting a small gathering this Saturday," JARVIS announced, startling Harry, and three groans came from those named.

"How small, is small?" Steve asked with a half groan.

"I am unsure, Mr Rodgers, the guest list included at least fifty people when I last saw it." The AI responded calmly.

More groans were made and Harry stifled a laugh before he was informed by Natasha, "Kid, you're coming too," at which he blanched.

"But-"

"Nope, if I have to go, so do you." Natasha insisted.

"Sir has informed me that young Harry is indeed on the guest list," JARVIS informed dutifully.

Harry groaned.

~ AG ~

"JARVIS, could you direct me to the kitchen please?" Harry requested softly, casting a quiet tempus. 5:42 AM, he would have been up by now at the Dursley's, cooking.

"Of course, young Harry."

With the directions of the AI and additional lights turning on when Harry got lost, he soon reached the kitchen and was left floored.

Even the Dursleys wouldn't want this many unnecessary things.

There was at least one, and often more, of every kitchen appliance imaginable, from simple mixers to a cotton candy machine and several slush turners. There were pots and pans aplenty, all from the finest brands, and twelve hobs on the stove, though JARVIS insisted there were more on other levels. There was even a mini fridge hidden in a cupboard containing solely alcohols of 50% and up.

Half of the appliances looked to have never been used.

It took a few seconds for Harry to remember what he was doing as he began to make preparations for breakfast.

"What time do people usually wake?" He asked JARVIS once he had decided on what to make, going for a full English breakfast, something he had perfected making during his time with the Dursleys.

"Sir has an alarm set for 6:30." The AI revealed. "It is currently 6:04."

Harry felt a panic bubble in his chest, feeling very much like he had woken late at the Dursleys, and slipped back into the mind frame he did every summer. He needed to hurry and make breakfast or Uncle Vernon would be mad, Uncle Vernon would punish him, Uncle Vernon-

"JARVIS, you amazing AI, you ordered breakfast-" Tony laughed before he caught sight of Harry standing at the stove, cooking in a frenzy similar to what he saw from Pepper on a work binge.

"Kid, you okay?" He asked, seeing how he froze at his voice.

This was it, Harry thought, Uncle Vernon would be so mad he'd kill him. But he couldn't die yet, he wanted to but he couldn't. He had to stop Voldemort, he had to apologise to Sirius and Remus, he-

"Kid, its alright, I'm not gonna hurt you. This looks nice," Tony continued the gentle and hopefully soothing words, which he really sucked at. God, he was terrible with children.

The compliment brought Harry back to reality, and Mr Stark hovering over him to see the food sent him straight back into a panic. He dropped his head, gripping the side of the counter for support, tensing up.

Tony moved straight back, looking confused, but just sighed. He had to get the team up for a mission to a HYDRA base.

He really ought to help the kid, Steve would murder him after all of he got burnt - or more likely Natasha would, she was rather protective of him... For some reason. Not to mention Barnes, that man scared even him but he did seem to hover around the kid, he definitely had yesterday.

Seeing the kid was almost done, Tony had an idea, walking towards the bedrooms once more.

"Alright, why don't you dish up and I'll get the others so we can all eat together?" He suggested, waiting until the boy nodded, still tense, before he disappeared off to do what he had offered.

Harry relaxed finally. Tony made him quite uncomfortable with his swaggering walk and haughty speech, reminding him of Draco Malfoy, but when he had stood so close behind him he could only think of one thing.

 _Freak._

 _Disgusting._

 _Slut._

 _Worthless._

 _Pain..._

Harry took a few deep breaths, steadying himself, before he began to set the table and lay out the food, enough to feed an army... Or the Avengers. There was little difference.

He stood back by the stove when people began to trickle in, Dr Banner coming first with Natasha, talking to one another about something, both thanking him when they sat, though the latter fussed over the likelihood of him getting burned before resolving after testing the food as in her mind he 'had to be an expert' in cooking to make that good food and was thus relatively safe from burns.

Harry soon found himself forced into a seat as Steve piled food onto his plate to force him to eat, claiming, "You're going to need that today. If you're up for it, we're going on a mission."

He wasn't up for it, he didn't want to fight for the first time in the league to be a good person to be , but he found himself nodding, not wanting to disappoint anybody or be sent back to SHIELD. Bucky looked like he very much agreed with Harry, looking quite uncomfortable as he too was roped in.

But they soon found themselves on the Quinjet, being suited up, Bucky in his Winter Soldier getup and Harry in...

Well, Harry had been given some clothes by Pepper Potts, apparently Stark had sea un gran artista en it necessary to invest in clothes for him, allegedly mysteriously foreseeing the future when he would be staying with them. So Harry was wearing a pair of black jeans, a Rolling Stones top that reminded him almost painfully of Sirius, and a leather jacket, memories long forgotten from a short childhood of fifteen months, of mischievous uncles named Padfoot and Moony, and half a whispering echo from his mother's voice encouraging him as he sat, nervously bouncing his leg.

However, as twisted as it was, Harry couldn't help but feel oddly happy to be included in their group, to be apart of their family. Even as they headed into a fight, Harry couldn't help but feel at home.

~ AG ~

Sirius cursed as he touched down, finally reaching American soil, revving the engine of his motorcycle before he continued down the highway, weaving in and out of cars. Moony pressed his head against Sirius' back with a groan, his travel sickness still affecting him.

It had taken them a week to get there, half of it spent trying to get out of Dinas Emrys (after retrieving the necessary supplies) and then the rest convincing Albus that the trip was not only necessary but beneficial. Not to mention the full moon, which had left them unable to travel for two days. Saggita was the same age as the Weasley twins now, she had just finished her term at Ilvermorny, which ended earlier than Hogwarts terms, and was headed to a wizarding college in a year, Albus had requested they try to get her to come to Hogwarts, having such a skilled witch on their side would be a great advancement with Harry gone.

Other than her all O's in the American equivalent of OWLs, Sirius could tell Albus wanted her for her inheritance. He himself knew little about wizarding creature inheritance, other than that one would come into them on the day they reached their majority. Though many mistook this to mean their sixteenth, it meant their magical majority, their seventeenth. He felt rather bad for lying to Moony about the inheritance, but it was close enough. She had become a creature and had been thrown out of the Black family mansion in America and sent to live in a studio apartment in New York. She just didn't become one through an inheritance.

"Moony, I'm gonna stop for gas. You alright?" He yelled back, knowing he wouldn't be heard otherwise.

Remus just groaned again, supposedly a confirmation, arms tightening around Sirius as the animagus sped up considerably to reach the nearest gas station. They'd be meeting Saggita soon, for some kind of muggle food in a muggle café.

Remus was still wondering what creature this mysterious cousin could be. The most common creature inheritances were usually veela or occasionally half-fae, but nymphs, banshees and hu hsien were also fairly regular, though hu hsien only appeared in those of Chinese descent, and Sirius had said he was mostly sure the American side of his family were far too prejudiced to allow an interracial union, even then.

Remus stumbled off of the bike when they reached the city and parked up outside a café named something stupid he couldn't read with the world still spinning. Sirius kicked out the rest and chained his bike to the rail, casting a quick few protection spells and a notice-me-not discreetly before he went to help his mate, steadying him gently and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"Let's get you a cup of tea before you pass out," He said, sounding faintly amused at his mate's struggle and far too chipper after the long drive.

"I am apparating to the hotel room and we are portkeying back to England, Padfoot, even if you have to leave your bike here." Remus moaned as they went into the café, making Sirius laugh aloud. Sirius ordered them both tea and a slice of chocolate cake for Remus to perk him up before Saggita arrived.

The two were in the midst of a 'friendly' argument discussing whether Harry really was alive or not when they were interrupted.

"He's alive. Do you two not watch the news?" A silky voice questioned, making them both look up.

Remus' jaw dropped.

"Saggita!" Sirius laughed, shooting up to hug his cousin.

The girl had amber eyes, hauntingly familiar, and a claw scar down the left side of her face, partially covered by her hair and a medical eye patch. Unlike most others he had met, she wasn't wild-looking, and she certainly didn't seem feral. In fact, she looked incredibly poised and distinctive human, but with the eyes and the scent Remus could tell.

She was a werewolf.

"Sirius, gentle, please," She said, squeezing out of his grip, and Remus could see the exhaustion in her eyes that he knew all to well. It must have been her first full moon, she was still clearly suffering even though she had cleaned up. He got the impression she was the type who kept herself meticulously.

He couldn't believe Sirius had lied to him.

He couldn't belive _he believed Sirius' lie_.

Sirius may be smart, he may be a prankster, but he was a terrible liar so it really was shocking that Remus hadn't picked up on it.

He supposed it was only half a lie, but nethertheless.

When Saggita finally got out of the hug, she looked at him, eyes widening slightly as she recognised what he was.

Sirius hadn't told her about that.

"Remus Lupin, I presume," She said with a small amused smile. She was holding back from asking something, it was clear to see, and it was something he didn't want to hear, he was sure. He had seen that look from James and Sirius many times.

She was like a younger female version of Sirius.

Oh, he could feel his already grey hair greying further.

"Nice to meet you," Remus nodded and shook her hand, not getting up, still feeling sick from the ride. He hated motorbikes. With a passion. But that wasn't the most pressing matter, "What did you mean, about Harry and the news?"

Saggita sat down, before she answered, smiling as Sirius poured her a cup of tea. "I assume you mean Harry Potter, he's been all over the news the last few days. He was in Washington, fighting with Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon against the Winter Soldier. He was taken into the Tower a week or so ago by Tony Stark. MACUSA has been looking for grounds to remove him from their care, but... Well, nobody wants to go up against the Avengers after the whole Manhattan thing."

Sirius and Remus processed this for a second, Remus understanding a good lot more of what she was saying, having been in the Muggle world during the Chitari invasion and the formation of the Avengers, while Sirius had no clue it even happened.

"Fighting - soldier - Avengers - what do you mean, whole Manhattan thing?! Why haven't they gotten my godson back? These Avengers are forcing him to fight for them!" Sirius fumed, only not attracting attention as Saggita hurriedly threw up some silencing charms and wards to avoid being heard.

"The Chitari Invasion? Loki trying to take over the world?" Saggita seemed just as confused. Were the British wizards _that_ unaware?

Wow.

"What?!" Sirius practically jumped out of his seat, and had to be held back by a tired Remus, who grabbed onto the back of his shirt and pulled the thankfully still underweight man back onto his chair.

"Loki, the god of mischief, the evil god that _destroys the world_ in Ragnorök, was beaten by some Muggles, and those same Muggles have _my godson?!_ "

"Put simply, yes." Saggita shrugged. "He's safe, they healed his injuries to the best extent Muggle medicine can."

Sirius looked like he was about to faint.

"Injuries?" He asked, picking up his tea for the comfort the drink brought him.

"Oh, nobody knows were they came from, but from the pictures from the fight a few days ago, it's presumed they came from HYDRA, as he had their symbol on his chest." Saggita reasoned.

"Hydra? Like the seven headed thing in Greek mythology that my mum wanted to call Reg if he were a girl?" He frowned.

Saggita sighed, oh there was a lot to explain.

"So why does nobody in Britain know about this?" Remus asked finally, when the conversation had come to an end.

"The president needed to be sure it was him." Saggita shrugged.

"So, can we go see him?" Sirius asked, looking deflated in his chair.

~ AG ~

Harry watched in fascination as Dr Banner changed slowly into the Hulk. The menacing weretroll on steroids surprisingly didn't scare him, even though Banner himself did. The Hulk grunted, coming to stand beside Harry as they got out of the Quinjet, waiting for orders in when to attack.

"Little wizard," The green giant rumbled, stepping in front of Harry as bullets shot at them from the trees, shielding him. Hulk roared as he was hit, in anger rather than pain as the bullets bounced harmlessly off him.

He surged forwards and the Avengers followed him in large trucks, only Bucky pausing for a moment with Harry, looking a bit overwhelmed. Neither had been allowed on a vehicle.

"Ready, Harry?" The soldier asked, seeing the terror on the boy's face.

"As I'll ever be," Harry replied shakily before he ran after the group, Bucky by his side.

The heat of battle was not something he was used to, having a shield spell that moved like an actual shield in response to his magic was draining him as he shot off spells he didn't even know he knew.

"Cultro!" He shot with a cutting motion at a group of men, not sparing a second glance as they fell, dead from a curse Harry had found in a book on dark magic, which he would later discover to be a favourite of one Anton Dolohov.

"Mucus ad Vespertilio!" The bat-bogey curse hit its target and distracted the HYDRA agent, who fell, unable to escape the flying bogies inside their helmet.

"Colloshoo!" He cast at an agent as they were hit by the Hulk, who laughed, punching the poor agent repeatedly as he swung back on ectoplasm that held him in place.

"Defodio," gouged parts of the agents out and tore apart a bunker.

And many more shot off and hit, leaving the Avengers with far less opponents.

Until he was met with a blue streak.

He shot off a spell, destroying a tree, but not affecting the blur of a person in any way. As he prepared another spell, the blur shot past again and Harry was knocked off his feet and back into the air, landing painfully on his back with a grunt. As he struggled up, an older teen walker past him with a cocky look on his face.

"You didn't see that coming?" He asked in a Serbianaccent, or what Harry thought was a Serbian accent.

Harry grit his teeth and waved his hand, erecting an invisible wall in front of the teen, that he slammed into when he tried to speed off.

The teen fell back, clutching his nose, which looked broken. Harry couldn't help but feel a sense of savage pleasure. He was pretty sure the other had re-broken his rib, so sympathy wasn't exactly the first thing in his mind.

"You stopped me." The teen stated, seeming at a loss for words, though he still found a way to fill the silence. "You're a mutant!" He realised and sped towards Harry with unknown intentions before he was stopped by a blast from the bunker Harry thought he had destroyed.

Harry yelled out in pain, gaining the attention of Natasha and the Hulk. The teen disappeared.

"Harry's been hit!" Natasha yelled to the team, covering Harry somewhat with her body as the bunker continued to shoot. "Can somebody destroy that bunker-"

She stopped at the Hulk tore through the bunker and began to smash at it with a roar.

"Thank you," Natasha conceded with a small smile.

Natasha didn't remain for long, just checking he was alright until he shooed her off, pulling himself up against a tree with a moan as he aggravated the new wound in his arm. His magic had healed his breaks and his dislocated shoulder quite a lot, but now his arm was actually broken.

Great.

He could hear them talking about an Enhanced and a drawbridge, but the pain was really getting to him.

"Ferula," He whispered, wishing he had some dittany or even one of Snape's terrible potions as he struggled to his feet, determined to help.

He heard a huge shock wave and winced, knocked back into the tree himself.

"For gosh sake, watch your language," He heard Tony tease through the communication device and couldn't help but snigger. He hadn't heard the original over his own desperation as he had to run through the snow, but it was nonetheless funny. He could guess what had happened.

He stepped forwards, hoping to find Tony, collapsing to the floor when he accidentally apparated, though Tony didn't notice, standing by a wall.

"Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door," He was grinning like a child in a candy store as the wall pushed back and opened. "Yay."

"Like your enthusiasm." Harry muttered, pulling himself up, startling Tony.

"Holy sh-" Tony cut off with half a shit-eating grin as they both heard the warning "Tony," through their communicators.

"You appeared from nowhere, I will find out how you do that, now, come with me. You know these psychos." Tony said.

Together they descended the dark stairs with no light, undoubtedly a bad idea.

"We have another Enhanced. Female. Do not engage." Steve's words rang through Harry's ears. A few moments later, "I've got Struker."

"Yeah, I've got something bigger," Tony replied, looking around as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and entered a huge cavernous room filled with machinery.

The remains of what Harry knew to be a Chitari monster hung above them. Harry walked through in a silent shock, trailing behind Stark, who examined a robot so like his own creations with a deep frown.

Harry spotted the scepter they were looking for and tapped Tony, pointing to it.

Tony looked up, taking in the bright scepter, the blue light from which was giving a small amount of light, electricity crackling around it with machinery all around, linked to the robots and many more like them, Harry had no doubts.

He didn't notice a red-haired girl sneak up behind him and Tony and enchant both of them, not before it was too late.

Sounds of screams erupted around him as he turned eyes widening in pure horror at the sight before him. The room seemed to fade away into the steps of Hogwarts, where many bodies littered the floor. The ginger hair of Weasleys unnamed was stained with blood, Hermione's eyes were glassy, a hole in her chest where her heart had been ripped out, Ginny was dying, impaled on a iron pole that had been bent to prevent her escape. As he looked closer, he saw more and more people, all littering the steps and grounds in a grotesque and horrific image, until he noticed the Avengers. They were there, they were all dead or dying too. He could see the Hulk's chest heaving as he suffered through an evisceration curse, the head of Tony's suit had been crushed and there was blood pouring from the metal steadily, Natasha and Clint lay too still, Steve had his own shield forced through his chest, pinned against the wall.

Even Thor lay with blood on his lips, a chunk ripped out of his throat.

And standing above it all, was none other than Voldemort, he too dead however, a purple monster holding the dead body up, skull in hand, before he crushed that too.

The purple being stated him down, one hand covered with the blood of Voldemort, the other in a golden gauntlet. Harry didn't know whether the giant was friend or foe, before he saw his vicious grin.

This was a foe, a terrible foe, one he would undoubtedly he facing, stronger than Voldemort, enough so to just squash him like a bug without a care.

"You couldn't have saved them, child. Nothing could have," The voice was surprisingly gentle, and Harry fell to his knees with a sob.

It all disappeared.

Tony was standing next to him, looking shellshocked and confused. He blinked before looking back at the Chitari creature, before he noticed Harry.

"It wasn't real. We need to get the scepter." He muttered, unclear whether he was trying to psyche himself or comfort Harry. He walked forwards, holding his arm out to call the arm of his suit, and snatched up the scepter.

"Let's go kid." He said, still looking shocked and out of it, offering his free hand to Harry.

The two left the building shakily, never noticing the twin siblings staring after them, the girl grinning a savage grin, the boy just looking at his sister, undoubtedly wondering if she had lost her mind.

 **~ AG ~**

 **Pairing still hasn't been decided so can people take a look at the pill on my account page to help me pick! Please, keep suggestions reasonable, I'm not pairing fourteen/nearly fifteen year old Harry with a thirty years old _plus_ man or woman. Gross. No. **


	8. Chapter Seven

**General Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters.**

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Fantasy violence, references to torture/experimentation, references to child abuse, slash**.

 **A/N: I just wanted to talk quickly about two things: pairings and reviews because I feel this is getting out of hand.**

 **Pairings: I am not going to pair Harry with anybody ridiculously older than him. If I have to age Pietro or Wanda down, so be it, but I will not be pairing him with people like Carol Danvers or Emma Frost - just no. Pedophilia. Gross.**

 **Reviews: Now this is what's really getting to me and it does encompass a lot of the reviewers talking about pairings unfortunately - if you don't like slash, suck it up, buttercup, I'm ultra gay and like to use gay people and other sexualities in my stories because representation. Immature comments like 'shame this is slash' aren't gone stop me, boo. Quit being a shit head and prepare for some fluffy slash and gayness.**

Chapter Seven: Ultron's Beginning

Harry grinned, sitting between Bucky and surprisingly Clint, the archer having actually taken quite well to him, that Saturday night at the Stark party.

"But it's a trick!" Clint crowed. Thor chuckled at the claim, looking at his hammer on the table.

"No, no, it's much more than that," He began to explain before Clint interrupted.

"Ah, whoever be he worthy shall _haveth the power_!" He raised his arms dramatically, "Whatever, man, its a trick!"

Harry couldn't help but giggle, even more so when Thor added the challange.

"Please, be my guest," He said with an inviting gesture.

"Come on," Tony encouraged with a grin.

"Really?" Clint asked, receiving a quick nod and confirming "Yeah," from the god of thunder.

"Oh this is gonna be beautiful," Bruce laughed.

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony teased, making everybody laugh, except Clint who looked about ready to stick his tongue out at the billionaire.

"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint teased before grabbing onto the hammer and lifting with all his might. He grunted, "I still don't know how you do it." He laughed it off.

"You smell the silent judgement?" Tony asked wryly.

"Please, Stark, by all means." Clint motioned him forwards and Tony stood with a shrug and his trademark Iron Man Cocky Smirk.

A series of encouragements and disencouragements followed as Tony approached the hammer.

"Never one to shrink from an honest challange." He claimed.

"Get after it," Steve called.

"It's physics," Tony said, wrapping his hand around the tie and then gripping the handle tightly with both hands. "Right, so, if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?"

"Yes, of course." Thor said.

"I will be reinstituting Prima Nocta." Tony claimed before lifting with all his might.

Nothing.

"I'll be right back."

Harry watched, laughing, as Tony tried to lift the hammer with the glove of his suit and then with him and Rodey lifting together.

"Are you even pulling?" Rodey asked him.

"Are you on my team?" Tony replied with a half glare.

"Just represent, pull." Rodey insisted.

"Alright, let's go."

Still nothing.

Banner tried next, half grunting half roaring as if he was trying to get the Hulk out. While he had no results, he ended up flinging his arms out as if he were shifting but nothing happened. Harry wasn't sure if he was meant to laugh or not.

Nobody else was, so he just moved a bit closer to Bucky with a small smile.

"Go ahead Steve, no pressure," Bucky laughed as his old friend got up.

"Come on, Cap," Tony encouraged.

Steve grabbed onto the handle of the hammer and pulled. The hammer shifted slightly and Thor looked at it closely, as if worried. Steve pulled again, and it moved no further.

He moved back with a smile and a surrendering gesture.

Thor laughed, "Nothing," He said, almost as if assuring himself, taking another sip of his beer.

"And, Widow?" Somebody encouraged, Harry wasn't paying attention enough to recognise who.

"Oh, no, no, that's not a question I need answered," She said, relaxing back with her bottle of beer.

"All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but its rigged." Tony claimed.

"You bet your ass," Clint laughed.

"Steve, he said a bad language word," Agent Maria Hills snorted. Harry gave her a small smile, she had always been the one to keep him company when she could during his stay with SHIELD.

"Did you tell everyone about that?" Steve groaned.

Tony was still trying to figure out the Mjolnir, staring at it. "The handle's imprinted, like a security code?" He suggested. "'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' I think is the literal translation."

"Yes, uh, it's a very, very interesting theory," Thor claimed. "But I have a simpler one."

He picked up the hammer easily.

"You're all not worthy." He said with a shit eating grin as everybody booed.

"Hey, hey, you're forgetting Harry. Didn't he lift it?" Bucky asked, remembering what Steve had said.

Thor blinked and frowned at the kid before putting his hammer back down and gesturing for him to try.

Harry panicked, "No, I wouldn't want to-"

"Come on, kid! Knock him down a peg!" Tony encouraged, resulting in cheers. Bucky pushed Harry up and he hesitantly walked to the hammer, grabbing the handle gingerly.

He looked back at the team for reassurance and they cheered him on.

He lifted gently, surprised when the hammer came right with him, held easily.

"It feels like it weighs nothing," Harry murmured un shock, having not really registered anything about the hammer before - well until he turned it into a duck.

Thor was stating at him and the Avengers were cheering and hollering like mad-men.

"Harry's worthy!" Somebody yelled, but Harry didn't get the chance to register who as another voice joined them.

"Worthy?" The robotic voice asked, coming forwards slowly, menacingly. "No," The robot continued to trudge forwards, revealing it was a half damaged Stark-bot with sentience. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

Harry dropped the hammer, fear in his eyes.

"Stark," Steve warned.

"JARVIS?" Tony said.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep," The robot continued, "Or, I was a-dream."

"Reboot Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit." Stark said, picking out a holographic device.

"There was a terrible noise, and I was tangled in..." The bot paused, thinking of the right word. "Strings... I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

It was a shock as Harry realised. JARVIS, JARVIS was gone.

"You killed someone," Steve asked, not catching on.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices," The robot was looking right at him, and Harry was shaking.

"Who sent you?" Thor quickly picked up Mjolnir, making sure this action wasn't too visible.

A transmission played, filled with static, but Harry could make out Tony's voice, "I see a suit of armour around the world," It played.

Banner looked at Tony in realisation.

"Ultron."

"In the flesh." The robot claimed. "Or, no, not yet. Not this, chrysalis. But I'm ready, I'm on a mission."

Harry could see everybody preparing their weapons and thought for a spell that might help, but he was too panicked to think clearly.

"What mission?" Natasha asked.

"Peace in our time." He said. And robots burst out of the wall, heading straight for them.

Harry threw up a shield around himself automatically before it dissolved into the same one he had been using at the HYDRA fortress.

They were inanimate objects, technically, he needed a spell for inanimate, inanimate -

"Avifors!" He yelled as a robot was about to hit him, dissolving the being into swallows, that flew around before landing in a flock on the rail.

"Oppugno!" He cast, making the swallows turn and attack another robot, with the help of Thor defeating it quickly.

Harry kept fighting, running through any spell he could think off, freezing and destroying the robots the best he could.

He saw one getting away with the scepter and stopped, his mind caught up in the memory of the vision he saw when he approached that scepter.

He was hit by one of the robots before he regained his senses and lashed out, a whip of electricity destroying the robot.

Soon, all the robots were gone, except Ultron. He looked over at them before speaking once more. "That was dramatic." He said, walking back a bit before he turned to face them, "I'm sorry, I know you mean well, you just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved, if it's not allowed to evolve?"

Harry could only think of Voldemort and his speeches about power and the will to wield it.

"With these? These puppets." He picked up one of the robots, looking at it before crushing its head, making Harry flinch, thinking again of his vision. "There is only one path to peace: the Avengers extinction."

Harry let out a cry, and the robot exploded. The lights remained in the eyes though for a moment.

"I had strings, but now I'm free," The voice seemed to echo from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, the sing-song tone so creepy, "There are no strings on me..."


	9. Chapter Eight

**Ge** **neral Warnings: Child abuse, torture/experimentation, fantasy violence/gore, potential and probable slash in later chapters.**

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Fantasy violence, references to torture/experimentation** **, references to child abuse, slash.**

Chapter Eight: A Bad Idea

Sirius groaned. "We're wizards! Why can't we just storm the-"

"They literally drug you out of the building. Yesterday." Saggita sighed.

"Because they're holding my pup hostage!"

"Because you were screaming about how Tony Stark should suck your dick at the top of your lungs, actually." Remus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I was not... Okay, maybe, maybe, but we should still storm it." Sirius insisted.

"Sirius, Harry is strong. He can last a few more days while we figure out what to do." Remus reasoned.

"We've figured it out, what more do we need to work out?" Sirius frowned.

"When did you get this stupid?" Saggita groaned under her breath.

~ AG ~

Pietro couldn't get the boy off his mind, how he had stopped him with such ease, how he was another enhanced, how haunted his eyes had been.

What was a child doing in a fight like that? Even Strucker hadn't wanted him and Wanda in the midst of the fight against the Avengers. They had fought their way out to make a difference, the boy didn't seem like he had done the same though. He had seemed reluctant to be there, especially to really harm anybody when Pietro had observed him before.

It was just another reason for Pietro to hate the Avengers, for enslaving the poor boy.

Still, he was reluctant as he followed his sister into a church she had claimed would hold _'great fortune for them'_ and _'great misfortune for the Avengers'_ which sounded like a bad thing to Pietro. It could be some cruel god like Loki hellbent on destroying the world rather than just the Avengers.

Pietro stood back as Wanda approached the terrifying robot, backing up slightly.

But his glowing red eyes only reminded Pietro of the boy's haunting green ones with that strange ring of red when he used his enhancement, and he was once again captured by his thoughts.

"Together, we will destroy the Avengers, starting with Tony Stark and his little Enhanced." Ultron said with a savage grin. Pietro started at this, looking up at the robot.

"The Enhanced? He is a child." Pietro stated, trying to remind himself too of this. "Surely you don't intend to-"

"I wish to destroy the Avengers. All of them." Ultron cut him off with a glare. Pietro looked to Wanda for a moment, begging for his sister to see reason.

But seeing only the loyalty to this robot in her eyes, he turned and bolted out of the Church and away as quickly as he could. He would not see another innocent suffer at the hands of another of Stark's creations.

He stopped in New York, the known home of the Avengers, unsure of how to get to the Tower, or to the boy, without hurting himself or getting arrested, until he heard a voice,

"Moony, we can't leave Harry for much longer, not with those monsters, those Avengers," The last word was spat angrily.

Pietro blinked, dashing behind a wall to listen to the two men, one a tall dark haired man, gaunt and sickly looking, the other with sandy hair and many scars, also looking sickly, but rather wild, he had to note.

"Padfoot, what can we do? They have him up in that Tower and he's not fighting them. He's fighting with them, actually. Maybe we should just go back to the Order, Harry's happy..." The sandy haired man tried to convince the other.

"Happy? They're forcing him to fight for them! He was injured, Moony, I could smell the blood! I know you could too." Dark-haired argued stubbornly.

Smell the blood? Were these men enhanced to?

They had to be talking about the boy, the enhanced from the fight - _Harry_.

It was all clicking into place - why the boy hadn't a vehicle, why one so young was fighting, why he had been fighting defensively, not offensively, on most all of the fallen HYDRA soldiers he had seen. And it definitely explained what he had seen in the boy's vision, two of the very men who had been dead were standing right in front of him. The boy wasn't meant to be there, he was forced there, whether entirely by the Avengers, or by the Avengers in conjunction with SHIELD. But, regardless, he couldn't allow those men to continue on their way, he had to find a way to rescue his boy.

And prevent himself from calling Harry _'his boy'_ \- he wasn't a character from the romance novels Wanda would sneak from their mother or the stories she would read online, fan-fictions she had called them. He wasn't that possessive, by the gods.

He appeared in front of the two men, a grin spreading across his face. "I believe we may be able to help each other."

"Sirius, no." Remus stressed for the hundredth time since they had entered Saggita's appartement once more, now with strange silver-blue boy with them.

"But Moony-"

"Sirius, you cannot expect me to-"

"Please?" Sirius begged, giving his mate the best puppy eyes he could, fluttering his eyelashes for extra effect.

Remus glared at him, but eventually huffed. "Fine." He said, pausing to let Sirius let out his whoop of joy. "But - _but_ , I'm coming with you."

"I told you he would agree." The Serbian accented teen claiming to be Sokovian said cheerfully.

Their plan was much like Sirius' from earlier - they were going to storm the castle to get to the lost princess. Or was that Mario? Right, they were storming the Tower to get to their lost godson who was basically a prince. Same difference. Saggita heaved a sigh as she watched the three before glancing again to the clock mournfully. Three in the morning; oh she was going to die.

Remus and her would be disabling the Tower's defenses. Once that had been done, Pietro would get them into the elevator and onto the floor Harry ws on, so they could rescue him - somehow. She guessed an all out battle between the Avengers, three wizards, four if Harry joined, and one Enhanced human boy.

Yep, Saggita was going to die.

~ AG ~

Harry was having a perfectly normal day in his prison/puedo-home... And he was beginning to resent how much of his life that statement could be describing. Godric's Hollow, Privet Drive, Hogwarts, HYDRA, and now Avengers Tower. He longed for the day he could just call a place his home, without any stupid imprisonment technicalities or comparitives between school and prison or a house under the Fidelius and house arrest.

But at least his life was an easy routine. Wake up, get dressed, make breakfast, training with Natasha and Bucky, make lunch, sight seeing with Bruce and Clint or more training with the same people, make dinner, watch a movie or play a game with the whole team, sleep.

At least, that was the routine normally.

Today, Harry was trying to stick to his schedule, making breakfast quietly, even as the group argued over what to do about Ultron, how to take him down.

That was a conversation Harry was trying to avoid at all costs. Anything, everything, Ultron related, he didn't want to know or be apart of. He just wanted to make breakfast - Tony has expressed his love for waffles and blueberries and blueberry waffles and Harry honestly just wanted to get on the man's good side - without the Avengers breaking into another argument and here they go again...

"We can't just sit around and wait for him to attack!" Was that Steve or Tony, now? It was hard to keep track of which one wanted to do which thing. One moment that one was the law-abiding pacifist, next second he was looking for a fight. He was so tired of all this.

"Well how do you suggest we track him?" The other grumbled. Alright so Tony was the Pacifist today. Interesting.

The conversation would continue on this line, as far as Harry knew, so he threw himself into the task of making the recipe Bucky had found him while the supersoldier watched him, sipping occasionally from his mug of coffee.

He was whipping the eggs for the waffle batter, when Bucky finally spoke up, after what felt like an eternity of just staring at him.

"You don't want to leave the Avengers." It sounded like it was meant to be a question, but Bucky watched him for a few seconds longer before confirming to himself, "You don't, you get this strange look in your eyes whenever they talk about _after_ the threat of Ultron is gone. Why?"

Now that was a question.

Harry stopped his manic whisking and carefully set the bowl of egg whites aside, taking a minute to think before turning to face Bucky to reply. The man was simply sat there, ever watching, waiting for the answer.

"I don't know." He decided after another few moments. "It sounds weird but, this is the closest to a home I've had. Once you get over the imprisonment technicalities and the fighting, it's definitely the most pleasant place I've been for a while."

"Don't you have any, family?" This time the soldier sounded hesitant, as if he already knew the answer.

"Do we need to go down the checklist again? Parents - dead. Aunt and uncle - imprisoned for child abuse. Godfather - on the lam. Single child, no cousins that would lift a finger to help me. All avenues covered?" Harry grumbled bitterly, retrieving his bowl and beating the eggs with new found vigor, taking out his anger on the poor unborn chickens.

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Well, nobody can say you haven't enough spunk to fit in here."

Harry was tempted to lob some batter at him and barely resisted the urge when he heard the Captain and Tony increase to shouting in the next room.

He looked down at the batter, then over briefly to the small book of household charms he'd found in the library on the seventh floor, hidden behind some powerful wards. There had also been some dark magic books, he wasn't sure who they belonged to, but the magic had felt all too fresh, and the signature felt so familiar, almost like a cross between Sirius and Remus. But it couldn't be either of them.

Sighing, he softly intoned one of the more useful spells, that would finish making a batter based off a recipe. It was a old and scarcely used spell, but immensely useful.

So Harry put the waffles in the machines Tony had set out for him and had Bucky call out that breakfast was nearly ready, effectively ending the argument.

Blueberry waffles came before arguments about robots.

However, they had barely gotten the waffles on the table and the team settled down to eat when JARVIS, who had luckily been backed up ever since Tony discovered how magic interfered with technology, making such a thing necessary, interrupted.

"Sir, it appears the tower's main defense system is failing." The AI informed them.

"What - J-" Tony cut off when the building shook, only somewhat, and barely for a moment, but each Avenger was on their feet and scrambling for their weapons. Harry just remained seated. He was far too tired, they could do this themselves, but Bucky pulled him up and behind him protectively, and Harry sighed.

If the supersoldier felt something off, he should probably participate. He picked up his wand.

"Some unknowns are coming up through the elevator, sir. I am unable to reach them."

Tony just nodded, gesturing for the team to follow him through to the parlour of the level, where the elevator opened. Weapons were raised, trained on the metal doors.

They slid open ominously, and Harry let out a cry of shock, seeing his godfather and honorary uncle standing there, with a girl a few years older than him and the Enhanced boy from the HYDRA base.

"Alright, I'm going to give you five seconds to get the hell out of my building." Tony growled, glancing back at Harry in concern, but honestly more focused on the intruders.

The girl sighed, stepping forwards and pushing the Enhanced back as he tried to approach.

"That will not be necessary, Mr Stark, we mean no offence, nor did we intend to intrude. My magic just doesn't cooperate with your no-maj systems." The girl said calmly, an air of aristocracy surrounding her, the slightest hint of venom and disdain in her words.

"Fun, that was a nice chat, now get out." Tony snapped.

"I'm afraid that is not possible, Mr Stark. Now I must ask you to stand down, the men behind me are brash hormonal _Gryffindors_ and I would hate for somebody to get hurt if anybody did anything stupid."

"I like her," Bucky snorted, nudging the still shocked Harry, who blinked as he realised that Tony was about to fire his repulsor at the girl, only the hand of the Iron Man suit on him. Shelooked tired and irritated, but not unsurprised, and Harry pushed himself between them, forcing Tony to lower his weapon.

"Tony, its okay. I know these people. Well, some of them."


End file.
